Managing a $7 billion budget annually, the person who knows global traffic best has developed an AI agent.

Text by | Shi Jiaxiang

Edited by | Chen Zhiyan

Li Shuhao might be the person in China who knows the best about global traffic operations.

TitanMove Technology, a digital service provider founded by him in 2017, has now become the most prominent star company in China's overseas marketing field. It serves nearly 100,000 Chinese companies going global, and manages an annual advertising budget of $7 billion. As a service provider, TitanMove has long been accustomed to staying in the background.

Li Shuhao, 36 years old this year, was an early employee of UC Browser. In 2016, with the stocks cashed out after UC was acquired by Alibaba, he decided to leave Alibaba and start his own business. He tried to start several tool - related products successively but failed. On the advice of his former leader Yu Yongfu, he finally focused on B2B marketing, which later became TitanMove Technology.

Since its establishment in 2017, TitanMove Technology has completed a total of 5 rounds of financing from star investment institutions such as IDG Capital, Zhongdeng Capital, Fengshang K2VC, and Jinshajiang Capital. He Chuan, a partner of Zhongdeng Capital, the leading investor in the Series B round, once evaluated that the current core business of TitanMove has "high barriers". Specifically, the first is the scale of advertising placement, large - media licenses, and the ability to serve small customers with AI. The second is the ability to cover global long - tail media and the ability to improve advertising placement efficiency with AI. As the company entered a high - growth cycle, TitanMove Technology's revenue increased five - fold in 4 years, and the number of employees grew from 300 to 1,500. After 2021, Li Shuhao has never opened the financing window to the capital market again. "The cash on our company's account even exceeds that of many listed companies," he said.

Looking back, Li Shuhao's and TitanMove's current achievements were foreshadowed. After UC was incorporated into Alibaba, Li Shuhao was responsible for the overseas advertising placement of Alipay and AliExpress. He was one of the earliest Chinese people to be exposed to digital globalization. In the popular words later, it was undoubtedly a case of "a person from the client - side entering the service - provider side".

Although "globalization" has become a standard answer for Chinese enterprises to seek development, expand markets, and find new growth points, and TitanMove is in the highly - watched e - commerce and traffic sectors, as a B2B enterprise, not many people know about it and Li Shuhao. There is also very little written content in the Chinese - speaking world about how this company has reached its current position.

Recently, this leading Chinese overseas marketing service provider has a new development. Its self - developed first enterprise - level industry - specific agent "Navos" focusing on overseas marketing is about to be launched.

Two months ago, in the article "The 'Shadow World' of Globalization", we told the stories of a series of "shadow companies" that play a pivotal role in the globalization chain of Chinese enterprises, and TitanMove is one of them.

Because of this story, one month before the product launch, "Undercurrents Waves" had an exclusive in - depth conversation with Li Shuhao. His speaking speed is almost twice that of an ordinary person (it is said that He Xiaopeng always asked him to slow down when he was at UC). Besides the upcoming Navos, we also talked about the development of TitanMove since its establishment.

During the nearly 3 - hour conversation, Li Shuhao talked about his belief in data and growth, and also mentioned that the traditional American marketing circle, which adheres to elitism, calls TitanMove "barbarians outside the city wall". Different from most domestic globalization entrepreneurs who are more conservative, Li Shuhao, a native of Shandong, mentioned his sense of national responsibility several times, saying "fighting on behalf of the Chinese team", and his ambition to build a company worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

This entrepreneur, who has the words "data - driven" hanging in his office, follows a very practical growth logic in both business development and organizational management. As he himself said, he believes in data Darwinism.

In 2017, when Li Shuhao chose to establish a B2B company, it was also a turning point when the C2C Internet business model in China's primary market started to decline. Later, as the market trends changed, B2B companies briefly reached the peak of dream valuations and then declined. Most investors who had focused on B2B also left this sector or even the investment industry. Li Shuhao said that the reason why TitanMove is still alive is that they have adapted to environmental changes countless times.

"When the climate turns cold and the forest turns into a grassland, those who don't come down from the mountain remain monkeys, while those who do become humans."

Part 01

One sentence from Yu Yongfu saved me

"Undercurrents": You left Alibaba in 2016. Why did you choose to start your own business at that time?

Li Shuhao: When I went for an interview at UC, they asked me if I wanted to start a business. Without hesitation, I said yes, but I didn't have enough experience and qualifications at that time. There were mainly two reasons for leaving in 2016. First, I could sell my stocks. The performance - based agreement after UC was sold to Alibaba had expired, and I had some cash on hand, so I could start my own business. I left earlier than Xiaopeng. Xiaopeng told me not to leave until the stock price reached 150, but I sold mine first.

Second, Alibaba's strategy at that time was not focused on going global. Cross - border e - commerce was defined by Alibaba as import - oriented, mainly helping Chinese people buy foreign products, sell luxury goods, and promote overseas brands. At that time, Alibaba was dominant in the market. People within the company said that they couldn't find a competitor even with a telescope. In 2015, Pinduoduo and Douyin didn't exist yet, and JD.com hadn't fully developed either.

"Undercurrents": How big did you think you could make the company at that time?

Li Shuhao: It had to be a company with a scale of hundreds of billions. Otherwise, starting a business would be meaningless.

I thought that internationalization was the upper limit of business. As long as business hadn't reached Mars and the Moon, internationalization was the limit of human cognition.

I also thought I had discovered a common rule for big companies - they should triple their growth every year. I was really anxious if they didn't. Later, I learned that it was possible for C2C companies to triple their growth, but for B2B service companies, a 50% - 100% growth was already very good.

"Undercurrents": Did you have a clear direction from the beginning regarding globalization, e - commerce, and marketing?

Li Shuhao: When I really started my business, I was extremely anxious in the early days.

From 2017 to 2020, society was quite impetuous at that time. There were two types of people in society. One type was "people who could easily get financing in Beijing's cafes". You could see that many people's company valuations were rising very fast at that time. The other type was "people who could get rich quickly in Shenzhen's Huaqiangbei". So my friends around me were all getting rich, either through high - valued company valuations or in cash.

I had just left Alibaba at that time, full of ambition to build a big company. But I definitely didn't figure out the direction that quickly. In the first two years of my entrepreneurship, I kept trying different things, such as website - building tools and tracking tools. I tried at least seven or eight projects.

"Undercurrents": How did you finally focus back on marketing?

Li Shuhao: At first, Fengshang and IDG invested in me and were very tolerant of my trial - and - error. In 2018, Yu Yongfu invested in me and pushed me to gradually wind up or sell off the projects that should be closed in 2019.

Yongfu helped me summarize three forms of B2B services -

The first type is the intermediary service provider, which makes money from information asymmetry.

The second type relies on services. You need to distinguish whether you are the service provider or the service demander. TitanMove chose to be the representative of the engineer dividend and supply - chain dividend, which means we are the service demander. Our overall strategy is "serve customers and handle suppliers", which was summarized by Yongfu. This sentence determined TitanMove's core positioning. Even today, many B2B companies still haven't figured this out.

The third type is to build a platform. We don't do any traffic monetization. Instead, we focus on data insights and understanding. I also don't guarantee the sales volume of any media. Because if I do, I will prioritize selling that thing, and I won't be objective.

I don't represent any overseas traffic. I only represent the interests of Chinese companies going global.

"Undercurrents": Which category contributes the most revenue to TitanMove now?

Li Shuhao: E - commerce, accounting for more than 60%. Internally, we say we are the e - commerce version of AppLovin.

The largest segment in e - commerce is clothing, and consumer electronics is the second - largest. But to be honest, we are not good at consumer electronics. Consumers take a long time to make a decision on consumer electronics. It's hard for them to make a purchase decision just based on one marketing campaign. The same goes for cars. This is something we are not good at. So there is still a lot of room for our competitors.

"Undercurrents": Aren't you worried?

Li Shuhao: Play to our strengths and make up for our weaknesses. Prioritize playing to our strengths and at the same time make up for our weaknesses. It's the same logic as advertising placement. If an advertisement performs well, we invest more; if it performs poorly, we just keep it from losing money.

"Undercurrents": What was the most fatal mistake you made in the past ten years?

Li Shuhao: From 2019 to 2021, we tried to help our customers build a complete overseas - going chain. At that time, going global was too early, and the e - commerce industry was not mature. Even some domestic Taobao sellers didn't know how to ship their products. In 2020, we raised funds in two rounds and invested in website - building, payment, logistics, ERP, and even a warehouse. Later, most of these projects failed.

The company expanded from one or two hundred people to four or five hundred people. At one point, I thought the company would go bankrupt in six months, so we laid off 200 people.

"Undercurrents": It sounds similar to the mistakes you made when you first started your business.

Li Shuhao: At that time, the business was growing very fast. It was hard not to get carried away. I thought what I was doing was right, and later it turned out to be similar to what Shopify is now. But it wasn't the right thing for our company to do at that time. Just think, how could I handle "ERP + website - building + payment + logistics + marketing" all by myself? I didn't have that ability. But in the future, when I reach a certain scale, I still want to do this.

Part 02

"Fighting on behalf of the Chinese team"

"Undercurrents": This is your ninth year of entrepreneurship. How big is your team now?

Li Shuhao: We now have about 1,500 people and serve nearly 100,000 customers. The coverage rate of top - tier overseas - going customers exceeds 80%.

"Undercurrents": Compared with your business scale, your company seems to be too low - key in terms of its domestic reputation and image.

Li Shuhao: Actually, our main changes have taken place in the past three years. The data system was built in 2020, but in the content aspect, such as advertising materials or creativity, I'm not good at it at all. I can't be like a 4A advertising agency and take customers to the United States to find celebrities for shooting. But thanks to AIGC, I can use AI to supplement the content, such as secondary - creation editing and digital humans.

This was the biggest lesson we learned in the past three years, which led to a sharp increase in our revenue scale in the past four years.

"Undercurrents": How much of an increase?

Li Shuhao: Five - fold in 4 years.

"Undercurrents": That's a lot!

Li Shuhao: It's not much in our industry. Pinduoduo increased ten - fold in two years.

There are two key time points in our development:

The first is breaking through the limitations of advertising placement and user reach through technology.

The second is using AI content creation represented by large - language models and StableDiffusion to bridge cultural differences.

The key point we are currently going through is AI's understanding and insight into the world. Each breakthrough at these key nodes can bring a two - to three - fold increase in efficiency.

"Undercurrents": What do you most want to do now?

Li Shuhao: Last year, I shouted the slogan "Fighting on behalf of the Chinese team" within the company. Why? I don't want European and American companies to think that Chinese companies are not competitive. We understand e - commerce, digitalization, and marketing. We are no worse than them. In the entire traffic industry, can you say that Chinese people are worse than Americans in this field?

I really admire ByteDance because it is a very successful international company. Why doesn't Zhang Yiming list the company? He must want to make a huge splash when he does.

"Undercurrents": Actually, it's hard to hear such views from today's overseas - going entrepreneurs. Most of them hope to blur their stances.

Li Shuhao: One of the important reasons why I started my own business in 2016 was that I was very disappointed with Alibaba's internationalization strategy at that time. I didn't want to help foreigners make money from Chinese people. Instead, I wanted to help Chinese people make money from foreigners. Maybe it's because I'm from Shandong. I have a sense of national responsibility. I'm very proud to make money from foreigners.

Once, a boss told me: When you start a business, think about whether you can give your son something to remember about your life experience and whether you can make your mother proud of you. I thought it made sense. What he meant was whether I could build a respected company. This really touched me.

"Undercurrents": You've mentioned several times that you're from Shandong, but starting a business doesn't seem to be a typical choice for Shandong people.

Li Shuhao: Shandong people have many characteristics. I think one of the most important ones is the sense of national responsibility. If foreigners can do something, we can do it too, and even better. This can boost the morale of the Chinese people.

"Undercurrents": Is the sense of national responsibility you mentioned a necessity for a Chinese - based global company today?

Li Shuhao: It's not a necessity, but it can help a company better survive market cycles.

Part 03

Decentralizing marketing with AI agents

"Undercurrents": What is the main purpose of the AI agent product Navos that you're going to launch?

Li Shuhao: This is an autopilot system for overseas marketing. It can understand all the processes and problems in overseas marketing. For example, in terms of strategy, it can analyze the characteristics of each country, whether there is a demand for your product, and what its selling points are. This is like the "brain". At the same time, overseas marketing is a very detailed project. You need to create a large number of advertising materials and place ads in hundreds of accounts. It would be very chaotic for a human to do this, but Navos can handle it easily.

"Undercurrents": Compared with many AI marketing companies, what is TitanMove's core competitiveness in developing Navos?

Li Shuhao: First, we have benchmark data, which I've been accumulating since I started my business. Regarding common marketing questions, such as what kind of women's clothing sells well, what kind of advertising materials are the